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A Voice from the South. 



D180U.SS1NG, AMONG O'l'iiKK ^SUBJECTS, 



(7^ 



!auery,;uiclil!jltniie(b, 



i'l'K'Trt'LLY IM- lUr'ATKD TO 



ROBERT J. BKEi^KlNRlDGE, D. D, 

(J F " K E N 'r U K Y , 



nV Ll]NNUX BIROKHEAD, M. D. 



••And mau wliose heaven erected face, 

Tlie smiles of love adorn, 

Man'? inhumanity to man, 

Makes countless thonsauds mourn !'" 



BALTIMORE: 
JOHN W. WOODS, PRINTER. 

1861. 



Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, 

Kejitucky. 
Dear Sir, 
^ The object in connecting y»»ur name with this little produc- 
^ ^tion is not merel}^ to attract pnblic interest nor to express the 
.-> ^ author's high regard ; but to more particularly invite your 
'^ ^earnest attention and aid in forwanhng the great results it con- 
templates, particularly as regards slavery. Our revolutionary 
fathers, fresh from a bloody content for the inalienable rights of 
man, spurning all outside influences, regarding African slavery 
in its simplicity and unsophisticated truth, undei the prompt- 
ing of an instinctive sense of justice, the spirit of Christianity, 
the dictates of reason and humanity, naturally lamented the 
mural and political inconsistency of perpetuating the institution 
of slavery. Most of the wise and good men of that day, ac- 
knowledged slavery "a great moral, social and political evil." 
Whilst bearing tlieir solemn testimony against it they felt con- 
strained to leave the serious rpiestions it involved to be solved 
l)y posterity and the sad consequences which loomed up so 
i impressively before the imagination of l^atrick Henry, to 
whose prophetic vision ''coming events cast their sliadows be- 
fore," are now upon us in all their sad reality. According to 
men's hjcality and training, opposite views are taken of the 
morality and wisdom of the institution. No matter on which 
side the truth lies, all must agree that it is necessarily a great 
progressive national evil, which has already attained an ap- 
paling importance. Unhappily whenever man's feelings and 
interest must be affected by his avowed opinions human nature 
will create a difficulty in reaching the truth. If our people 
could be induced, under a due sense of responsibility to God, 
laying aside all anger, malice and evil speaking, honestly to 
examine this subject, this momcnttjus question would be ration- 



ally and amicably settled, fur the decision vests upon jjropositions 
susceptible of settlement by the plainest understanding. 

The North and the South are both right, yet they are de- 
cidedly both wrong. The North, regarding the subject in the 
abstract, is right ; regarding it politically, wrgng. The South, 
regarding it in the abstract, is wrong ; but regarding it politi- 
cally, in a certain sense, is right ; and both are wrong, not 
having taken wise measuios to palliate or remove so great an 
evil. 

I have ventured to suggest a reined}' both palli:uive aud 
radical, but it will require far m(.»re force and intiuenee thaii 1 
possess even to initiate such a work. In looking through our 
broad land, T know of no one so peculiarly suited, practically, 
to patronize so patriotic and philanthropic an enterprise. A 
Southern gentleman by biilh, feehngs and habit, standing 
before the connnunity a calm, upright, fearless, public spirited 
man, free from all uudidy controling, political or sectional, feel- 
jug, pledged to truth and virtue only ; by your vocatioji a ser- 
vant of Christ and a friend to mankind. Will you then hold 
in your strong hand the entering wedge ? Depend upon it there 
will come many an unlooked for sturdy blow, now idle for want 
of an aim, to (h-ive honu^ the we'lge. History assures us wliere 
a great poUtical evil exists, mankind only want the proper 
leader to make the assault. When Luthei' stepped forth to 
war against Papist abuses thousands were ready to respond. 
How many at this moment, North and South, mdy wait 
such another intrepid leader. 

lles}ject fully, 

LENNOX BIKCKHEAD. 



APPEN'DIX, 



So much pcrplexily clouds every aspect of American Slavery, 
it involves such serious questiinis affecting us in our moral, 
social and political relations, that there is naturally a morbid 
sensibility in the national mind which shrinks from all moral, 
philosophical or political examination ; but as all the great 
and best men of the South unbiased by the lust fur wealth, or 
the lust for power or pride of party, have ever united with the 
general sentiment of mankind in its condemnation as a "great 
moral, social and political evil," surely as patriots, as reason- 
able men responsible to a great future tribunal, we are called 
upon to honestly and bravely look the momentous question 
in the face. Indeed the question has become so mixed up with 
pecuniary, party, political, and religious considerations, so long 
viewed through a contracted theology, or an undiscriminating 
false philanthropy, that we should not wonder to find the 
public mind confused, disgusted and disinclined patiently, calm- 
ly, and candidly to examine the matter, neither in its abstract 
simplicity nor in the complications of its modified character as 
a political institution ; yet, to reconcile difficulties, relieve con- 
science, reach just conclusions, a proper sense of duty and act 
wisely, this is essential, for there is all the difference of light 
and darkness between abstract slavery and slavery as a politi- 
cal institution. Injustice and oppression constitute the one, 
upon the other rests the protection and safety of the African ; 
upon the one the gross assumption, teeming with injustice, 
abuses and immorality, that the slave is a mere transferable 
chattel and also the authority, irrespective of all social neces- 
sity, to perpetuate the institution ; upon the other the only 
hope for a bettered condition of the negro. 

If tlie abolitionist in his blind impulsive course, regardless of 
the spirit and scope of Holy Writ, or the suggestions of reason, 
has done mischief in their virtuous zeal to counteract the mad- 



208 

ness aii(i wickeiLiess of abolitionirsni, good men have been car- 
ried beyond the necessities of the case, beyond the legitin:iate 
grounds of defence, have passed throiigli the enemy to a friend- 
ly province, have brought into conflict divine precepts and di- 
vine teachings, have boldly assailed the inalienable rights of 
man, fraternized with wrong and oppression, have overlooked 
the origin of human and confounded natural and i)olitical rights, 
given man a positive, absolute and inlierent right of pro])erty 
in his fellow; thus, in their turn, have they become vulnerable 
to the shafts of truth and virtue, and call upon us to fall back 
upon first principles to counteract error. 

Tlie full, thorough examination of tb.e question, in all its im- 
portant bearings, requires it to be made primarily a question 
of morality, otherwise we will find great difficulty in arriving 
at our duty, in reaching or correcting abuses and appljdng 
radical remedies, for, entrenched beliind even a false tlicology and 
an assumed or conventional morality, men will not care to 
change tlieir long cherished opinions or liabits, however ques- 
tionable their character. 

God in Ilis precepts has given a standard of right and wrong, 
in our moral sense the ability to distinguisli right from wrong, 
and in His tciichings lie has tauglitthe application of His pre- 
cei'ts under all the varying circumstances of life ; man is a pro- 
bationer personally I'esponsible to his Creator, or he is not ; he 
is a free agent, or he is not. Sla\'ery is either morally wrong 
or it IS not, the aftirmative of these questions is declaratory of a 
distinction between right and wrong and of a divinely given 
standard to test the character of human conduct. 

God is the original sole proprietor of man, and unless dele- 
gated by Him no human right can ever exist in one man over 
another without a voluntary surrender. A human right is the 
authority to act, directly or mediately coming from God, the 
only source, it is either natural or social ; slavery is either prac- 
tically the abnegation or abrogation of human rights, and is 
either personal or political. God, by the nature given to man, 
instituted society, wliich necessarily implies the authority to 
preserve and perpetuate. Tlie worst bearable government is 
better tlian no government. No institution which is not in itself, 
or general consequences, in harmony with the spirit and teach- 
ings of the Saviour, can of itself bo morally right or politically 
wise. Upon these assumptions we propose to construct our 
argument. 



20i) 

The vindication of hluvery conimeuces witb the interence 
that it must have been divinel}' instituted, because coeval with 
the history of man, but as we can never know wliy, how, or 
when it originated, the original condition of society and its 
social needs, nor what scheme and purposes ul' Providence its 
sufferance may liave been designed to answer, we cannot legiti- 
mately infer the divine approval of our institution from the 
fact of its existence in a remote ago. Personal strife and offen- 
sive wariare have existed from the time of Cain, but we cannot 
infer divine approval. Whilst it is perfectly consistent with 
God's revealed design of human probation, that the evil which 
men do as free agents may be over-ruled for good, it is essen- 
tial to the divine plan that man has the liberty to do wrong, 
and to infer from the existence of an institution or usage, the 
divine approval would be to deny man's probationary charac- 
ter, to make the slave trade, and the forcing of opium on the 
Chinese, virtuous acts. 

God allowed the lust for power and wealth to take this par- 
ticular direction, no doubt He will overrule them for the exten- 
sion of Christianity ; but it is by no means a logical conclusion 
that He approved of the motive power, in itself wicked. Had 
the apostolic successors, instead of engaging men in angry con- 
troversy, or arraying them on the battle field with regard to 
idle dogmas, with which the happiness of mankind had abso- 
lutely no concerij, simply obeyed the divine injunction "go and 
teach all nations," would not Christianity have progressed as 
far under the mild inlluence of Missionary effort, as it has 
through the intermediate agency of the sword, the slave and 
opium trade ? What virtue and reverence for God's commands 
refused to do, by His eternally fixed laws, he has made the 
evil passions of men effect. The prophetic curse of Noah has 
been strongly relied upon to justify tlie institution, but with as 
much propriety would the cruelties of the Roman army in ful- 
filling the predicted destruction of Jerusalem be justified, for 
the}^ were equally a prophetic curse. Anyhow we think the 
curse of servitude was directed against the descendant nations 
of Ham and not to the personal bondage of his descendants, 
because if intended to aT)p!y to individual bondage, by far too 
few have been slaves to the posterity of the brothers to fulfill 
the prophesy, and in the present temper of the world it is not 
likely to be ever fulfilled. If designed as a special curse upon 
the posterity of Ham. as the argunient supposes, the descend- 



210 

auts of the brothers must have been exchided, l)ut the fact is 
more of their descendants have been in personal bondage, and 
therefore slavery could not have been designed as a special dis- 
criminative curse upon Ham, without which as well as a gen- 
eral fulfiUmeut. the argument is worthless. Moreover, the 
prophesy has been fulfilled in the subjugation of Ham's posteri- 
ty by that of hiis brothers ; decide this matter as we may is un- 
important, because we as christian moralists have no more con- 
cern in this prophetic curse than in the peculiar usages of the 
Jews under their iiistitutions, nnless you make Christianity un- 
necessary aud superrogatory, for it now is our rule of conduct. 
Polygamy was allowed, the Israelites were ordered to overrun 
idolatrous nations, where does Christianity license abstract 
slavery ? Where polygamy ? Vv' here to overrun the idola- 
trous nations of Africa with fire and sword ? The biblical 
argument most triumphantly urged is the omission of St. Paul 
to condemn Roman and Grecian slavery, and it is attempted to 
draw odium upon the objection to this negative argument by 
charging that it casts an imputation of fear and dishonesty up- 
on the virtuous and heroic Paul ; but if we destroy the argu- 
ment, this damaging charge is repelled. 

In his probationary state man is at liberty to create the 
circumstances or conditions which suits particular forms of 
government, accordingly we find such to be the fact, and that 
the kind of government is ever the result of the intellectual 
and moral condition of the people. At the advent the Roman 
government was tyrannical and oppressive, but under ex- 
isting circumstances it was the best to be had, as tlie most 
intolerable national calamity is no government, the Roman 
government, bad as it was, was allowed to stand unrebuked, 
though surely in itself disa})proved by the Saviour. When 
Paul entered upon his mission he found Rome a nation of sol- 
diers and slaves. . Slavery an incorporated political institution, 
part aud parcel of a vicious body politic, the result of war 
which created the necessity for agricultural labor and furnished 
in its prisoners, whom it saved from butchery on the battle 
field, the necessary subjects, and could not have been suddenly 
and coercively abolished without the worst political evil — an- 
archy ; hence, Paul wisely meddled with neither, he was satis- 
fied with planting such principles the adoption of which must 
make any form of government answer the ends of government, 
and take from slavery all the virulence of injustice and op})res- 
8ion. 



211 

We must keep in view that Paul was the apostle of him 
who declared that his "'Kingdom was not of this world," that 
he came not a political but religious reformer to preach peace 
on eartli and good will to men, to plant in Christianity the 
great corrective of all moral evil ; was another Paul to appear 
in the South now, a christian missionary as wise and good a 
man as he, can it be imagined that he would commence the 
work in criminating the masters, or preaclung down an insti- 
tution, greatly valued and cherished, in the Soufhei'n mind no 
wrong identified with their prosperity and essential to their 
habits of social life ? No, he would perceive that it would be 
worse than useless, that he would not be listened to, that ab«.)li- 
tion would do incalculable mischief, derange the whole social 
structure, seriously injure masters and slaves. Why should 
Paul have meddled with a pohtical institution which his pre- 
cepts could not reach until the evil heart of Rome became sub- 
ject to Christianity? Why talk of honor and injustice to a 
man who has no sense of either ? Why do that which must 
defeat the object of his high mission, and aggravate the evils 
of the time? Did Paul sympathize with Rcmian l);irljarity 
exhibited in the treatment of slaves, in gladiatiiig. wild beast 
fights, or the triumphant processions in which the unhappy 
victims of war were exposed to the most unnecessary cruel 
distress ? Was Nero's government to his taste ? Yet he 
meddled not specifically with them. Because Paul did not con- 
demn despotism, must we on such authority advocate tyranny ? 
But was there not another cause for Paul's silence, in the truth, 
that there, as with us now, the sin of slavery was not in the 
fact of its existence, but in its abuses, and refraining from all 
effort to remove the condition the result of human conduct, 
which made the institution a social necessity ? Paul displayed 
his political sagacity when he told his disciples to give their 
slaves ''that which was just ami equal," for without exciting 
political jealousy, or alarm for slave property, he aimed the 
deadliest blow at the institution, actually initiated its downfall, 
for the services of bondsmen have no advantages over freemen 
if there was a fair remuneration and no unreasonable exactions, 
this is the revelation of experience in our country. Let the 
principles of Christianity furnish the basis for a servile code 
and servile treatment, and slavery must die out for the simple 
reason that there v%'ould be no advantage in cheapness of labor 
nor any convenience to counterbalance the inherent evils, 
19* 



212 

anxieties and vexations of slavery. Like despotism, slavery 
was only tolerated because of the wickedness of men. Did 
Christianity prevail universally, tyranny, war and slavery would 
be impossibilities. Now it is easy to perceive that the same 
reasons may have operated on Paul without his omission to 
denounce slavery, implicating in the slightest degree his wis- 
dom, honesty or courage. Had he like some of our clergy 
turned aside from his true vocation, turned abolitionist, Chris- 
tianity would have been poorly advanced. But with his fear- 
less nature, untiring zeal, simple but powerful eloquence, would 
have excited servile war, given to fanaticism a very carnival, 
opened the flood-gates of misery upon Rome. No, he knew 
the source of all moral evil and its remedy. Accordingly, be- 
fore the sway of Christianity, slavery disappeared without social 
disorganization. 

The virtuous and wise course of Paul in the case of Onesi- 
mus has been pressed into the service to sustain a bad cause, 
when in truth it was impossible f(jr a man of his high grade 
of virtue and wisdom, no matter how much he deprecated the 
Roman institution, to have acted differently. The highest 
duty of christian citizenship is to obey the laws of your 
country, for disobedience strikes directly at the heart of social 
organization, tends to anarchy, the most deplorable of all hu- 
man conditions. Paul had nothing to do in instituting and had 
no controling power over it, but by violating the laws in 
regard to it no one could estimate the damage he would do his 
high mission and to the community, his influence over Phile- 
mon and other slave owners must have gone. What would 
the enemies of Christianity have desired more than to be en- 
abled to cast the odium of a violator of the laws upon its 
great apostle ? Bad laws must be endured till they can be 
removed wdthout disorganizing society, the greatest of all pos- 
sible evils, the laws must remain until they can safely be re- 
moved. Slavery was a legalized institution, slaves were pri- 
vate property held under the same title as Paul held his house, 
under the law of the land, and the same principle, breaking 
down the law, carried out, defrauding Philemon, would have 
taken away Paul's house. The individual beneflt to Onesimus 
would have been far more than counterbalanced by the injury 
to his mission and to the community at large, showing that 
obedience to the law, even if founded in wrong, is virtuous and 
wise, and Paul will stand forever upon the sacred page the 



213 

brightest model of a consistent christian citizen. When a 
benevolent Pennsylvanian assists his Maryland neighbor in 
recovering his fugitive arc we to infer his advocacy of slavery ? 
Certainly not, only that he is a good citizen and obeys the laws 
of his country, not allowing his individual feelings to turn him 
from his sacred duty to his Government. Had Paul been 
instrumental in removing Onesimus beyond the reach of his 
master, in the sight of man and God, he would have been vir- 
tually a thief, false to his friend a social disorganizer, an 
enemy to mankind. Had Paul's example been followed, 
slavery would have been much nearer its end. Had benevolent 
men simply obeyed the laws and interceded for lenity, the 
kindest neighborly feelings would have been cultivated, a far 
greater influence exerted over Southern sentiment ; silently, 
quietly, inoffensively doing its work. Such conduct would 
have exhibited the same results now seen in Maryland, once 
thoroughly a slave state, now probably verging to a free state. 
The subject, without gendering bitterness, would have been 
freelj' discussed, the master secure in his property would have 
had no occasion for severe stringency of discipline, the slave, un- 
seduced, seeing no chance of escape, would have been cheerful 
and contented, far happier than now, a freezing outcast in 
Canada. Nor would we now have the sorrow and mortifica- 
tion to see demagogueism making slavery a pretext as the best 
cloak for ambition, preying upon the vitals of the Repubhc. 

Can the advocate for abstract slavery consistently contend 
for the inalienable rights of man, for human freedom ? Unless 
he can prove the negro alien from the human family, or can 
show some specific divine precept justifying African bondage, 
the conclusion is palpable that wherever a community, white 
or black, possessing the power, it may with equal authority 
morally reduce to personal bondage white or colored members 
of the human family. If the ground of social necessity is 
assumed, are we not bound to prove that we may rightfully 
create the circumstances which make the social necessity, or 
are not called upon to ^use every means for their correction ? 
Do we not virtually create these circumstances when we per- 
petuate them by failing to use means for their removal ? 

If Paul's authority will justify abstract slavery, then it must 
apply throughout all mankind, for the Roman and Grecian 
slaves were white. It must be right and proper for Russia to 
reduce all her prisoners of war to personal bondage, sell them, 



2U 

generals and all, with their children's children, to the highest 
bidder. Is South Carolina in her wildest iiltraism prepared 
for such a doctrine ? 

We contend, therefore, that there is no scripture authority 
for abstract slavery. Let us test the validity of its claims by 
the light of reason, based on an instinctive sense of justice 
and of right and wrong. It is an incontrovertible proposition, 
a self-evident truth, that there can be but one source, the Al- 
mighty, of human rights, and that all men enjoy naturally an 
equality of right, and as justice is simply a due regard to the 
rights of others, we further deduce the conclusion that abstract 
slavery is morally wrong. Much time and learned labor by 
the clergy have been devoted, occasioned by jjarty objects, the 
perils of the country, or lust for gain, to estabHsh for the in- 
stitution the authority of Holy Writ, and men, anxious to 
escape from duties which result from an opposite view, have 
greedily availed of the effort. But whoever undertakes to 
prove a divine right for abstract slavery is involved in the 
hopeless task of proving that slavery, per se, is in its tendencies, 
influences and general consequences promotive of the peace, 
prosperity and happiness of mankind, for such is the plain de- 
sign of Christianity. To assert that any institution at variance 
with this design, can be approved of by its great founder, im- 
plicates divine consistency. But undeniable facts, and the 
general sentiment of mankind, declare slavery evil and only 
evil, without one redeeming feature. 

In discussing this subject, reason requires us to regard it not 
as slavery would be in rigid subjection to christian principle, 
but as it actually exists, an admitted wrong to the black, hurt- 
ful to the white man and to national prosperity. Christianity 
was designed to preside over all the practical details of life, to 
rule our natural propensities and sweeten human intercourse. 
Is it conceivable, by an unbiassed mind, that the benevolent 
Redeemer, or an inspired man of God, who taught so impres- 
sively the great lessons of justice and kindness, could approve 
of a Roman institution so teeming with injustice, abuse and 
cruelty ? American slavery being an unnatural condition, 
grating to our natural feelings of benevolence, revolting to our 
moral sense of right and wrong, necessarily liable to the great- 
est abuse, involving the violation of human rights, only tole- 
rated because a necessity presupposes something wrong in the 
social structure, vicious, damaging to individuals and society, 



215 

therefore the business of Christianity to correct. We think the 
clergy would have been far more appropriately employed in 
pointing out this something wrong and its corrective, than in 
fortifying men in their assumed right to oppress their fellow-man 
and perpetuate a "great social, moral and political evil," For 
a christian to be conservative is well, but to be consistent is 
surely far better. With political institutions, conceding to 
them every privilege common to citizens, v/e contend that 
professionally the clergy have nothing to do, for their business 
is not to distract and embitter. But with the purity of public 
sentiment they have every thing to do. Yet where conventions, 
presbyteries and conferences yearly meet, we see, in the daily 
journals, notices shocking virtuous and noble sentiment. We 
see a noble state once renowned for good and great men, 
throughout whose ever}'' valley and from whose every hill-top 
freedom pitched her highest note of remonstrance, most earn- 
estly plead for the inalienable rights of man, degenerate into a 
great slave mart. Slaves having become a regular staple, 
yielding millions to her people, who, reposing upon an assumed 
abstract right, pursue with marvelously unruffled equanimity 
the business of perpetuating their country's curse ! In the 
bewilderment caused by contending minds, Pilate sarcastically 
asked the Saviour, ''what is truth ?" In the perplexity upon 
this subject, produced by contending divines, the gross per- 
version of christian precept, and the palpable inconsistency be- 
tween profession and practice, some minion of despotism might 
well sneeringly ask a boastful American citizen, what are '•'the 
inalienable rights of man," what justice, what is duty ? 
If in itself a wise and virtuous institution, why has every com- 
munity where African slavery ever existed, opposing a resistless 
barrier to even wealth — wont to ride triumphantly over every 
other obstacle to social position — affixed an indelible stigma 
upon professional slave dealing? Why, in the convention 
called to frame the Constitution, did the southern orators, io a 
man, exhaust opprobrious epithets in denouncing it a great 
moral and political wrong ? Do moral principles, as eternal 
as God from whom they came, authontative in one age, 
lose all authority in another ? Why did Virginia, when 
deeding away her North-western territory stipulate that there 
slavery should never exist? Why did Kentucky's great 
statesman so vehemently oppose its territorial extension ? 
Why did Presidents Washington, Jefferson and Madison so 



216 

strongly reprobate it? Madison, with a sensitiveness truly 
remarkable and expressive of his abhorrence, protesting against 
the term "slaves" being even named in the Constitution, sub- 
stituting for slaves the words "held to bondage," because he 
would not have recognized in an instrument so sacred to free- 
dom and designed to be as enduring as time, the right of prop- 
erty in man. Jefferson declaring that "there was not one at- 
tribute of God in sympathy with negro slavery." Why, 
throughout all mankind, save where king cotton sways, has it 
the unqualified reprobation of the wise and good ? May hu- 
man sentiment restrain and must God's eternal precepts truckle 
to mammon ? Yet men, assuming to represent the great Ke- 
deemer, teach us from the pulpit, that African slavery is a 
heaven ai^pointed institution, eternally basking in the ever 
vivifying smiles of Christianity ? 

An essay purporting to develop the virtue and beauties of 
slavery would be an original idea, truly a curiosity, and we 
challenge its production. If the institution in itself is a good 
one, so promotive of mutual prosperity, upon the principle 
that we are bound to do good to all men, it is sinful to restrict 
slavery to the South. We should rivet the shackles upon the 
slave the world over, prohibit all emancipation, re-open the 
slave trade, and let all of our people, rich and poor, enjoy all 
the blessings of this universally beneficient institution ! 

But before coming to a practical decision, ask Maryland and 
Virginia why their fields are worn out, neglected wastes, the 
farms depreciated, and why it is reasonable to suppose — slavery 
extinct — that comparing with adjoining states, in a few years 
real estate would be quadrupled. 

Although we deny abstract slavery all support from the 
light of reason and holy writ, we distinctly assert, apart from 
its abuses and neglect, to abate and remove it — in which the 
sin consists — American slavery is negatively a wise, benevo- 
lent institution, because it temporarily prevents incalculable 
greater mischief and misery. 

The abolitionist who denies slavery justifiable under all cir- 
cumstances, to be consistent, should clamor for the conversion 
of every Monarchy into a llepublic, for as all human rights 
proceed from the one great source and are equally imperative, 
political can only ditfer from personal slavery in the degree 
of infringement, and if the one is morally wrong, under all 
circumstances, so must the other be. Surely he must be a 



211 

wild, fanatical republican who would make Russia a Republic ! 
A conscientious man, unaccustomed to analyze the character 
of acts with regard to motives, circumstances and consequences, 
habituated implicitly to obey precept in the letter, regardless 
of its spirit, object, or practical bearings, may easily and inno- 
cently carry out his principles mischievously. 

The character and extent of the authority of moral pre- 
cepts to be justly estimated, must be viewed in reference to 
their object and reasonable limitation. Though moral princi- 
ciples are fixed in character, and absolute in authority, the 
character of the acts to Avhich they apply, under circumstan- 
ces, so change, as to entirely evade their jurisdiction. A lie 
is always an untruth, but an untruth is not always a lie. 
Stealing is taking the property of another, but taking the 
property of another is not always stealing, for both these acts 
may occur under circumstances where the criminal intent, es- 
sential to make the acts, lying and stealing, were not present. 
We cannot conceive of God commanding the observance of 
truth, and also privileging falsehood ; therefore, consistency 
must be a divine attribute. As all divine commands come 
from the same source, they must be equally imperative, of 
course no precept can take precedence of another, they mu- 
tually limit each other's range. Where the authority of one 
precept conflicts with the authority of another, there its power 
must end, for this is the requirement of divine consistency, 
otherwise, obedience to the one would be disobedience to the 
other, and there must be inextricable ethical confusion. 

Parental obedience is exacted, but when a son is ordered to 
steal, the authority of the precept requiring parental obedi- 
ence, must cease, because it conflicts with the command "Thou 
shall not steal." An infuriated man pursues a parent with 
murderous intent to a son's house, who denies his pres- 
ence, yet without the sin of a lie, for tlie son, if he betrayed 
his father's retreat to an assassin, would not obey the command 
to "honor his father," nor would he be loving his neighbor as 
himself if he facilitated an enraged man in becoming a mur- 
derer. By aiding the man, he would practically ami virtually 
hecome, parliceps ciimiuis, a violator of the law. So, disre- 
garding this principle, would lead to complicated disobedience. 
We are directed to honor the king, to obey rulers, but surely 
we are not required to obey the wicked laws of corrupt rulers, 
when avoidable, for that would be to violate other precepts, un- 



1^18 

resistiijgly to yieM to the iviost griiuling 0}>pvess.»r, ami the ohjcct 
of the government, the htncfited of the governed, he defeated. 

We are told to give to liim tliat asheth, but whenever an 
nn worth}' object, upon tlie plea of such precept, makes a de- 
ma!;d, vve may innocently refu.se, otherwise, a man would be 
encouraging indolence and vice, reduce his family to extreme 
povert}'', and become obnoxious to the charge of being "worse 
than an infidel." You may deceive, innocently, for their own 
good, a child, an insane, sick, or drunken man, wdiich shows 
that the moral wrong of an untruth, is not in the act but in 
the criminal intent. Hence. G od in giving a probationary exist- 
ence, has given us a discretion and an understanding to dis- 
criminate circumstances, and determine the true character of 
acts. Now let us apply the principle here developed, to 
American slavery, imposed upon us by the reckless cupidity 
of a former generation, grown into a social necessity, existing 
under circumstances limiting the range of precepts which 
otherwise make slavery morally wrong. If abstract slavery 
is wrong simply because it violates certain moral precepts, 
then, if circumstances exist, suspending, through divine con- 
sistenc}^ such precepts, their object is defeated, the sin of 
slavery is destroyed, and the condemnatory precepts cannot 
apply, because it is a condition removed beyond their jurisdic- 
tion by the conflicting range of other precepts ecpially authori- 
tative, That American slavery does exist under circumstances 
which will not admit of the applicati(;n of the precepts con- 
demnatory of abstiact slavery, is perfectly plain, for immediate 
general emancipation would ruin master and slave, disorgan- 
ize society, embarrass the commercial prosperity of the world, 
and produce widespread misery. In fact, the abolitionist who 
has a correct view of this subject, and persists in his mad 
course from political or other motives, is guilty of divine diso- 
bedience and unmitigated cruelty. 

But from false views of the true relations of master and 
slave, men have extended a right from its very^ nature, co-ex- 
tensive only W'ith necessity over the whole man, soul and body, 
made him personal property, well nigh practicall}' confounded 
him with his brute. It would seem important then, that the 
conduct of masters be regulated by sound moral and political 
principles, there exist a clear, precise idea of the nature and 
full extent of the right, under which a man is held in bondage. 
Whence comes the right of luiman bondage? If not derived 



219 

from revelation, nor the light of nature ; if it exists, it must 
come from social necessity. But the power to give, implies 
the actual possession of the gift. The law cannot impart 
that which it has not. Now has any community morally the 
right in possession, which it may inipart to individuals of un- 
limited, unconditional bondage ? 

Unquestionably man was designed for social life, this ne- 
cessarily implies the right to construct and perpetuate, from 
this inherent right is derived the discretionary power of com- 
munities to restrict privileges, control human conduct when- 
ever required by human weal, hence the authority to punish 
crime, confine the lunatic, and hold man in personal or politi- 
cal bondage ; whilst society holds this authority b}^ divine 
right it is plainly a limited authority ; divine consistency 
requires it to be exercised in subordination to the great moral 
precepts designed for the government of all mankind, and of 
course cannot be extended beyond the social necessity, can give 
no right of personal property, implying exclusive unlimited 
control, as a possessor's right in his horse. We can only know 
God's will through his absolute commands and the voice of his 
institutions. Having instituted scciety wherever its social 
needs make it necessary, he instituted political or social slavery, 
but no where has he commanded us, nor can the social exigen- 
cy requiring it exist, to make chattels of our negroes, and we 
deny all right of such property in man as allowed a Roman 
irresponsibly to throw his living chattels into his fish pond. 

Men should be made to realize by squaring the subject be- 
fore the mind's eye, bringing it hom.e to their sense of what is 
due between man and man, to their own hearts, and testing it 
by the divine standard of right and wrong, that an absolute 
unrestricted right of property in man as in a mule, can con- 
sistently, neither morally nor politically exist, because man has 
a far higher clearly discriminated rank in the divine economy, 
is divinely placed upon an equality of natural right with his 
fellow man — an equality which cannot be even disturbed but 
by a paramount social necessity, because man has rights to which 
the brute has no claim, and over which the law of necessity, 
subordinate to divine precept, the only authority abrogating 
human rights, can have, in its necessarily limited authority, no 
jurisdiction. God the creator, original and sole proprietor, has 
only given away man's natural rights as far as essential to sat- 
isfy the law of social necessity. Nor has the slave, like the 
20 



220 

soldier or sailor, contracted to surrender his natural and legal 
rights. Therefore to take possession of his body and rights, 
beyond this law of necessity, is simply usurpation. So long 
as a slave continues in a country where the social necessity ex- 
ists, the slave cannot rightfullj^ complain of his position, and 
should he in personal difficulty kill his master, he may be 
rightfully hanged, because the good of the community as well 
as the happiness of the slave exacts it, but should it occur in a for- 
eign country, the same man stands upon an equality of right, and 
the crime is preciseh^ of the same grade as if occurring between 
two masters in Maryland,, and social necessity does not require 
his execution. Every ciUze7i is bound by an implied contract 
to obey the laws of his country, but the slave is no citizen, 
tliere was no implied contract between him and the govisrn- 
ment which required him to be hanged for the murder of his 
master in self defence ; therefore, apart from social necessity, 
to hang him for manslaughter, would be simply murder. If 
this proposition is sound, there can be no iiiherent natural right 
of man in man ; therefore it is purely the creature of circum- 
stances, a political or social right for the mutual benefit of 
master and slave, coeval with, and limited by this law. In 
moralit}^ the slave is entitled to every right and privilege 
of mankind — not rightfully restricted by this law of neces- 
sity. All the obligations which masters recognize as due 
to each other are, with this qualification, in full force as regards 
the slave, and the commands to do justly, show mercy, and 
others, with all their solemn sanctions, preside over the relations 
of master and slave. 

Does this great imperi<xis law of necessity in one greedy 
gulp swallow up all the divinely given natural rights of man ? 
How much the responsibility of the master and the future ame- 
liorated condition of the slaves are involved in the answer. Is 
not the slave's right to enjoy in his own private mode of life the 
earnings of his own toil, his natural authority over his domestic 
and religious relations, untouched by this law ? If there is no 
special, directly nor mediatel}', revealed divine right to claim 
unlimited control over the person, time, will and earnings of a 
slave for his own exclusive benefit, responsibility to God and 
a due respect for the opinions of mankind require every man 
to show some rational foundation for the assumption, for it 
does seem perfectly plain that if abstract slavery has no right- 
ful existence, that the right to hold man in personal bondage 



221 

springs solely from the ignorance and deteriorated condition of 
the black and the absence of a proper public sentiment making 
the social law of necessity with which tlie right must be coeval 
and coextensive, that whilst a certain degree of slavery mider 
certain circumstances may virtuously exist, unless every right 
of manhood is swept away, there must be a limit beyond which, 
in morality, it cannot extend. 

If the slave can be allowed a fair remuneration with the or- 
dinary privileges of free labor, you are morally bound to yield 
them, for there the right of master ends, go beyond and the le- 
gitimate master is merged in the petty tyrant, or justice, mercy 
and human rights have no foundation either in nature, reason 
nor revelation. In truth the right to hold the negro in bondage 
has no other foundation than the right to confine the insane, 
and as we feel bound to confine and take care of the lunatic 
for his own comfort and safety, as well as for that of the com- 
munity, and when the necessity for restraint ceases to restore 
him to all the rights of manhood, the same must be our duty 
to the negro. 

In defence of the institution, an argument is drawn from the 
law of races, and it is decided that the African, though human, 
belongs to an inferior race, then the inference is very com- 
placently drawn that he may rightfully become the slave of a 
superior race. That there are grades of intellect and peculiar 
adaptations to inhabit certain zones of the earth which distinct- 
ly mark a variety of races, and that certain races are less capa- 
ble of self government is admitted, but it is not conceded in this 
admission that there exists any justification for personal slavery, 
because such a conclusion v/ould be gratuitous, there not being 
the slightest divine authority, the sole foundation of human 
conduct, either in revelation or nature. We must assume that 
infinite wisdom ever adapts means to its end. When the horse 
was designed for the servitude of man, he was so constituted, 
there was perfect harmony between his nature and the end. 
Hence, under all circumstances, he is found in that natural re- 
lation ; not so with the negro, because he is under the influence 
of laws common to human nature which makes the relation 
ever jarring. 

Indolence and luxurious ease, throwing out of exercise those 
faculties essential to the supremacy of the more highly endowed 
race, emasculate man's vigor, unfit him for governing his in- 
ferior fellow-man, the last from his nature is constantly dis- 



222 

posed to rebel and throw off tlie yoke. For the fact of slavery- 
does not reverse the laws of nature, a sense of wrono; must ever 
excite discontent or resentment, the one will naturally seek its 
gratification in revenge, the other in some change of condition. 
Unless jnui can rescind or reverse the laws of human nature the 
oppressed will fly from bondage and human nature will synjpa- 
thize with the wretched fugitive. Hence abolitionism, so long 
as the liberty of the press and freedom of speech are constitu- 
tional privileges, eternal discontent, wranglings and servile war, 
legislate as you may, are inevitable. Again, it is admitted that 
the white race cannot healthfully exist in climates where the ne- 
gro flourishes. Here we have distinct natural laws antagonistic 
to the theory, surely defeating the assumed design of omnipo- 
tence, which the idea of infinite wisdom precludes. But when 
two races come in contact whose nature forbids political amalga- 
mation, just as two families cannot live harmoniously under the 
same roof, one must govern, and nature and reason give suprem- 
acy to the superior race. Clearly then, from a variation in the 
human family there cannot be legitimately inferred the design 
that one race should appropriate the other for its own exclu- 
sive convenience, the design obviously was that each should 
occupy its appropriate zone. The cupidity of man having 
broken in upon the harmony of nature, I grant a justifying 
necessity for the political subjection of the inferior race is the 
result. But though rightfully kept in a subordinate station, 
the more gifted race is not released from the obligation to 
govern by the principles designed for the common advantage 
of mankind. The white race have all the power and can, in 
a corporate capacity, take as good care of the negro, keep him 
under as wholesome discipline, as if subject to irresponsible in- 
dividual tyranny. Disfranchise him of every political privilege, 
every right he cannot be sal'ely trusted with, but do not de- 
grade his manhood to the level of a mule. It is common to 
justify negro slavery by the consideration that the slaves are 
far better off than their parents in Africa, but although this 
consideration may weigh with those dispjsed .to vindicate the 
slave trade, it can have no bearing upon the question before 
us. If a man saves the life of a fellow-man he derives no right 
of property in him or his descendants. 

If a man descended from Irish parentage is far better off in 
America than if he had been born in Ireland, does that give 
any right to an American community to make a slave of him ? 



223 

Neither our responsibilities nor moral relations are an inher« 
itance, but spring immediately from our individuality. A 
virtuous loyal citizen is never hanged for the treason of his 
father, nor does a murderer escape the gallows because his 
father was an eminently good man. It is said, to reconcile 
anti-slavery men, that the slave is far better otf than the freed 
negro. As a general fact it may be true under existing circum- 
stances, but a wise legislation is comprehensive in its views, 
and prospective in its policy. We expect existing circum- 
stances will be altered and we look to the evils probable to re- 
sult to both races from a continuance of the institution. Such 
are the instincts of our nature with which personal slavery 
conflicts that a man must be either brutally stultified or highly 
christianized for the perfection of the slave. One condition 
will prevent his feeling, and the other reconcile him to the 
hardships of his condition, but as the intermediate class will be 
ever I'ar greater than the extreme, to expect a contented and 
passively submissive slave population is all in vain. An anxiety 
to put an end to a perilous political strife influencing some, and 
a lust for power and gold, over-riding reason, experience, and 
morality, controlling others, it has been boldly denied that the 
institution is *'a great social political and moral evil." Such 
we will ask, what is American slavery ? And leave the settle- 
ment of the question to the answer honestly given : American 
slavery, admitted to be a blight on the prosperity of every 
community where it has ever existed, holds forcible possession 
of man for man's convenience and pecuniary benefit, violates 
all the inalienable rights of man, subjects him to the universally 
admitted deteriorating efi"ects of personal bondage, usurps entire 
control over his will, his person, his labor, his domestic relations, 
his conscience ; presides over his whole existence, his irrespon- 
sible judge, jury and executioner ; in fact, leaves him scarcely 
one vestige of humanity except his naked body ; it demoral- 
izes and deteriorates the w^hite race, tending to the growth of 
indolence, and to destroy self dependence, producing a vicious 
pride, averse to corporal labor, violating most injuriously the 
divine law which decrees that "man shall eat his bread in the 
sweat of his brow;" it requires an increasingly severe servile 
code, practically abrogates the natural relations of husband and 
wife, parents and children, it gives increasing domestic anxiety 
and alarm, leads to the most frightful crimes, suspending the 
ordinary course of justice by lynch law, it allows the abscond- 
20*^ 



224 

ing slave to be hunted by blood hounds through swamps, and 
if found, in obedience to the most powerful instincts of his 
nature, a love of freedom and resistance to abuse, opposing 
arrest, to be legally shot down ; it ponstantly gives rise to most 
bitter political strife, threatens the ruin of the ivepublic and by 
its inherent abuses cries to Heaven for vengeance. Is this fan- 
cy, or is it fact ? All the great and good men of the early days 
of the Republic, North and South were deluded or gave a false 
testimony, all the observation and experience of impartial men 
since are deceptive, all the numerous statements and advertise- 
ments in the southern journals of the day, are false or the 
picture is true to life. Yet such is the institution which chris- 
tian teachers will labor to show is authorised by Christianity 
irrespective of necessity not to be meddled with. Circumstances 
having forced the S(juth into a false position, certainly without 
a due regard to the master's rights and prosperity, to all 
circumstances and con^jequences to both races, coercively and 
suddenly to root out slavery would not be more unwise and 
cruel than repugnant to the teachings and spirit of Christianity 
which we invoke for its removal. But whilst I defend the 
existing institution with its abuses as a necessary evil in pi-e- 
ference to a general emancipation, involving far greater mis- 
chief, it cannot be fairly inferred that I advocate the institution 
as right in itself. It is only a choice of evils. As the cir- 
cumstances which legitimate slavery are wrong and hurtful, 
its consequences hostile to individual and national prosperity, 
surely the obligation rests upon us as responsible beings, divine- 
ly ordered to do good to all men, to alter this unnatural con- 
dition. If our premises are just and our reasoning sound, 
slavery, in the abstract, is utterly unauthoiised. American 
slavery a great moral, social and political evil, having no other 
foundation than sheer neccssit}', and our plain duty must be 
not to recognize it otherwise, still not to interfere with a legal- 
ized institution, unless with a right spirit, in a proper way to 
point out its true character, with its abuses, mitigate its hard- 
ships, change, as far as possible, the condition which makes it 
a necessity, and remove the negro beyond their reach, by en- 
couraging colonization, emigration and a general diffusion 
through the world. 

We cannot regard with indifference any legislation impeding 
diffusion, and must condemn the course which prohibits the 
poor freed negro a homo in any state. You find a race of un- 



fortunate men appealing fro7ii their degradation and oppression 
to your humanity and magnanimity, but you heed not their 
petitions. As benevolently would you refuse the shipwrecked 
mariner thrown upon your coast a home ? Surely neither 
philanthropy nor patriotism are elements of such abolitionism. 
We believe an irresistible argument, based on the natural right 
of mankind, as the divinely appointed tenants in common of 
the earth, and a fair construction of the spirit of the constitu- 
tion, can establish the freedman's natural and political right to 
emigrate into any part of his native land. If one state has the 
moral and political right to banish, and others in their sover- 
eignty have the sanie to repe! ; banished from one state, repelled 
from another, the higlnvay is the only resort for a living, at 
the same time the road to the gallov/s I Why not get rid of 
the trouble in a more summary huniane way, decree that 
emancipation and decapitation go hand in hand I Abolition- 
ism is wont to satisfy her shallow philanthropy with listening 
to exaggerated accounts of negro oppression, idle sympath}^, and 
vindictive vituperation of the South. It offers no aid in coun- 
sel or money, and would, as in Jamaica, set free to bring greater 
ruin upon the slave ; was it for such conduct that God gave an 
understanding to direct the feelings of the heart ? 

Obviously it is folly to point out an evil unless we can pro- 
pose a remedy for the evil itself, or to counteract its tendencies. 
It is useless to attempt any social or political changes, unsup- 
ported by public sentiment. Let all the literary machinery of 
the country be put in requisition. Let our religious periodi- 
cals, our reviews, our newspapers, be thrown open for discus- 
sion in a right spirit, let a calm appeal be made to the under- 
standing, patriotism and philanthropy of our people, thus 
create a favorable public sentiment and upon that erect your 
plans. We suggest diffusion by colonization and emigration, 
and also we urge an ameliorated slavery. That f^3ur millions 
of negroes by colonization, assisted by the wisest means of dif- 
fusion can be so reduced as to entirely do away with slavery 
in every form and degree, to human vision, seems impractica- 
ble, nor is it essential to consistency witli moral and political 
principles; for man cannot exceed his ability, and to a certain 
degree we have an absolute necessity to deal with. But if the 
institution is restrained within manageable bounds, the slave 
fairly requited, protected from wrong, elevated by moral cul- 
ture, his personal bondage converted into political control by 



226 

becoming the property of the state, the fullest claims of justice 
and humanity will be satisfied. The views j)reseuted suggest 
the immediate institution of a wise, benevolent, remedial code, 
as well to relieve present abuses as to co-operate with schemes 
for diffusion and removal by emigration and the great radical 
remedy of colonization, also that a society under its patronage 
be formed in each southern state which shall apply to the 
general government for a portion of territory on the South- 
West border of Texas, and at the same time fur the proceeds 
of the sales from public lands so long as necessary, and that 
such colony shall be exclusively under the management of the 
state societies till territoral government becomes necessary. 
The present mode of colonizing contends with difficulties which 
the proposed plan will materially lessen. 

The facilities of transporting, temporarily supporting, de- 
fending and managing emigrants, will be materially increased 
without the same jeopardy of life from climate, or demands for 
money. The necessity of crossing the ocean, of residing in a 
remote, unhealthy, savage country, will no longer exist, restrain- 
ing emigration. Many conscientious men, seeing their slave's 
condition likely to be bettered, will no longer withhold emanci- 
pation. The plea so often opposed to manumission that the 
free black is a "nuisance" must cease, because a distant home 
is provided for him. The prospect of a successful result will 
animate zealous effort in many a desponding, inactive mind. 
Such a wide field for philanthropic eflbrt thrown open, cannot 
fail, in this time of religious enterprise, unfurling as it is the 
banner of christianit}^ before the most remote and inaccessible 
people, to invite labor to a field of benevolence worthy of the 
age. All reasonable, honest abolitionists, will divert their en- 
ergies from the present mischievous channels to the promotion 
of such a scheme. 

With such an enterprise fairly under way, all of that vast 
and influential class of timid, lukewarm, time-serving friends 
to emancipation must embrace this scheme. Such must be the 
progress of public sentiment, soon no respectable man, valuing 
public opinion, will have the hardihood to vindicate slavery 
upon its own merits. The impression seems general that to 
elevate the slave by education and Christianity will unfit him 
for slavery, that he will acquire a knowledge of his rights, and 
aims above his condition, which will make him discontented 
and less controllable. Under the proposed plan this revolting 



227 

objection, springing from such a sad necessity, will no longer 
exist. Whenever a community leaves a class, distinct by its 
caste, in utter neglect, without elementarj'' education and re- 
ligious instruction, under a depressing sense of inferiority and 
degradation, exposed to all the unrestrained influences of igno- 
rance, idleness and alcohol, and then complains of it as a 
nuisance, that community only writes its own sentence of con- 
demnation, for that community has the power of legislation, 
with the moral influence to control the causes of negro worth- 
lessness, and to make the result of their own neglect a reason 
for oppression and abuse, is unjust in the extreme. Let wise, 
benevolent restrictions be put on the domestic slave trade and 
all be removed from emancipation. Enact that all children 
born after a certain time shall be registered and serve for 
twenty years to compensate for raising, from that age let them 
be allowed fair wages, to be collected and invested by the state 
till forty years of age, then let them take their wages and such 
of their famil}^ as they can buy and emigrate, or colonize, at 
their option. Will such a law do injustice to any man ? 

If there exists an objector who refuses to allow his slaves a 
fair remuneration, he may be great, powerful, accomplished 
and chivalrous, but he must stand before his God as neither 
patriotic, just, honest nor merciful. In furtheranc3 of this plan, 
let it be enacted that the state issue bonds to a moderate 
amount, redeemable in thirty years. With these bonds, as far 
as they will go, let all slaves in the settlement of estates or 
otherwise for sale, the state being a preferred purchaser, be 
piu-chased at a fair valuation, becoming the property of the 
state, let them be hired out as agricultural laborers till they 
pay for themselves, then let them colonize, receiving from the 
society a cabin and twenty acres of land, or remain as the 
property of the state, hired out as before, but in the enjoyment 
of their own earnings, till it suits to colonize. Under this sys- 
tem the planter would save his capital to improve his estates, 
get rid of the unpleasantness and anxieties incident to slavery. 
The slave would be elevated in the scale of being, advanced to 
a state more favorable to emancipation. He would be relieved 
from the depression, ignomiu}'^ and abuse of personal bondage. 
As his wages increased he would have an increasing self-re- 
spect and interest in good behavior, become actually a police 
to guard servile insurrection. In the meantine the state would 
be gradually releasing herself from an incubus, and a generous 



228 

sentiment, recognizing the African as entitled to all the privi- 
leges (»f mankind, would be cultivated, having a favorable ef- 
fect upon the minds of the people towards emancipation. 
Upon the proposed plan of checking, reducing and ultimately 
removing, time, long time, will be required. 

The change from slave to free labor will be so gradual as 
hardly to be felt. Social life will accommodate itself insen- 
sibly to the gradual change, there will be no interruption to 
the business of the country, and there will not be one pound less 
of cotton raised. Under tlie stimulating influence of labor re- 
munerated, of prospective freedom and a high object to save 
his earnings, negro labor will be far more valuable, and as the 
gradual demand for labor calls, it will come. We have been 
gravely told that cotton cannot be cultivated by white labor, 
but in the face of the facts, that the European emigrant makes 
the public works at the South, is seen in all its large cities, 
doing all the laborious drudgery of common laborers ; that the 
British and French soldiers and sailors are able to go through 
all the severest military duties in India and Africa, and from 
the fact that all over the world experience shows, that by ob- 
serving a few simple sanitary rules, especially rigid abstinence 
from alcohol, that men are enabled, in the hottest and most 
sickl}'- countries, to preserve their health under a reasonable 
exposure and moderate labor, we may fairly question the 
assertion. Can we doubt if black labor could not be had, that 
white labor, stimulated by high wages, would not come? Wo 
know that in the salt mines, coal mines, furnaces, glass works 
and other occupations, known to produce disease and abridge 
life, labor is abundant. But assuming black labor necessary, 
there is no necessity for its being slave labor. But we are told 
the free blacks will not work, yet the white man will have, if 
he chooses to make the necessary laws, the same power to 
make the free blacks work that he has to make the slave blacks 
labor. Bat conceding all which the force of the argument re- 
quires, where is the divine authority to justify one set of men 
to coerce others to work unrequited for them, where they can- 
not labor ? Can expediency abrogate divine precept ? Will 
such an argument weigh against a divine command ? When 
the Almighty appointed the growth of cotton f )r the benefit of 
mankind, did he place its culture under such conditions as 
necessarily requires the violation of his distinct command to 
do justly and love mercy ? Surely the Almighty will effect 



229 

all the purposes he has designed, and can supply all the wants 
he has created without abrogating or requiring any one to 
violate the great precepts or commands given to man, which 
would imphcate his omniscience, omnipotence or wisdom. 

Each state can, by legislation, secure any amount of black 
labor, only make his home comfortable and the manumitted 
will not care to emigrate, the only difference will be substi- 
tuting a portion of free black labor, and with the law to con- 
trol them they can be made to do their duty. Whilst the ne- 
cessity for a long time to consun:mate the scheme must save all 
embarrassment from a sudden withdrawal of slave labor, al- 
lowing full time to substitute free labor, it will enable good 
and just men, conscientiously and consistently to make use of 
slave labor, and its products so long as the necessity lasts, and 
it would annihilate abolitionism. To trace results to their 
causes often requires patient, honest inquiry, and there are 
hasty, harsh-judging, superficial men, too indolent to think, or 
men whose limited reach of tlumght will not admit of easy ac- 
cess to truth, looking at the degraded result of slavery, who 
regard the negro as "sealed from his nativity the slave of na- 
ture and the son of hell," and defiantly asks '-is there any hope 
for raising him above the level of the beast of burden ?" But 
is it just or fair when he has been uncared for by the Legisla- 
ture, only to punish his offences, neither encouraged nor aided 
to rise above the degradation where freedom found him, to 
make the wretched product of slavery justify the institution ? 
That simple emancipation will not elevate the slave, and that 
the greatest advantage of the pro[)osedplan is only to be found 
in coming generations, is the dictate of common sense. But then 
we will have started in the right line of duty, the first great, 
important step will have been taken in the right direction. 
There are niany who deal in abstractions, and whose sense of 
right and wrong, and whose philanthropy are full}' gratified 
with mere emancipation, leaving the poor slave to the sure 
consequences of a fixed law which connects such a condition 
with misery. But is there a christian obligation to send millions 
to redeem the foreign heathen and none to bestow thousands on 
our slavery degraded blacks ? Is there patriotism in opposing 
foreign invasion and none in expelling the domestic enemy ? 
Is there philanthropy in relieving human misery in Ireland 
and none in raising the black man from degradation and 
wretchedness ? 



280 

I implore the good men of the country to make every effort 
to place the negro under circumstances of personal indepen- 
dence and equality, where the ordinary motives which sthiiu- 
late and develop human excellence may have fair play. 
Surely human natare must be false to her own laws if we do not 
find that "as the slave departs the man returns." The same law- 
rules in the brute and in the human family. The sheep^ placed 
under a better climate, extra care and attention, will rise far above 
his family, but still retain all the distinctive features of the 
sheep. No d(jubt whole communities, under the influence of 
moral and physical causes, have degenerated in different de- 
grees and given the variety to the human family, but man, 
under all circumstances, is still found to be man, and there is 
a susceptibility and a tendency under favorable circumstances 
to rise to his original. We see this law of human nature il- 
lustrated in the fact, that after a few generations with us the 
African becomes much improved, and when transported to 
Liberia rises still higher in the scale of character. 

From all we know of the history of man, he must have been 
created, civilized, and we claim from revelation and the classi- 
fication of naturalists a common origin. Whence then, all 
the variety of savage life ? How can this result but from the 
steady operation for ages of deteriorating moral and physical 
causes ? All the moral events and physical condition through- 
out creation, seem to result from fixed laws whether for evil 
or for good. Hence, certain consequences invariably follow 
a certain conduct. The suspension of certain moral and 
physical laws produces corix'sponding changes. Constitutional 
diseases, parental deficiencies, mental proclivities are transmit- 
ted, families morally and physically degenerate, showing that 
human procreation is in obedience to certain laws which mould 
the character, physically and morally. Just as the muscular 
system, within healthful limits, is exercised, is the muscular 
vigor, so with the nervous system, mental development corres- 
ponds with that of the brain. The arm which is tied up 
withers, the unpracticed brain falls off in vigorous manifesta- 
tions, the good man by practicing virtue becomes better, the 
bad man habituated to evil becom.es worse, so that it seems 
possible that man, made after the image of his Creator, may, 
in the course of ages, drift away from his high original, till the 
distinctive features of his race are nearly lost. 

The colony in New South Wales, settled from the very 



231 

sweepings of tlu^ );uls in iMiiil ind, under inipi'Mvini; in'liienr-cs, 
has become a moral, iniliistri-ais, prosperous community. Is 
not the inference legitimate that when removed from unfavor- 
able circumstances and placed under others mijre favorable to 
the develo})ment of human excellence that the x'Lfrican will rise 
if not to the ancient .Htanilard attributed to his early history, at 
least to a degree that we may reasonably hope for success in 
colonizing? Anyhow, conceding his inferiority cannot furnish 
an argument for- enslaving him, for if yon admit the negro is a 
man, you nuist, if a christian, in his treatment, he ^overned by 
divine precepts given to regulate the intercourse aiaong men. 
Of course if we tind that tiie necessities of his nature make it 
absolutely necessary to disrobe him i')f his manhood, there is no 
alternative, he must be treated as a brute. 

Some facts, superficially regarded, may di -courage our 
scheme. The fugitives who have been coucentral<,'d in Canada 
have never advanced in rcspectal»ility, the slaves freed by John 
Randolph settled in Oliio, are equally unpromising. We must 
reflect that these were ignorant slavery degraded men, left en- 
tirely to their own management, cut off from the improving, 
elevating influences of social intercourse with their betters. 
They carried with them all their slave habits, and as no pains 
were taken to imprijve them, they were under less favorable 
circumstances than when they had masters to keep them from 
drinking and idleness. Now take from any of our cities a 
colon}' of the lowest grade of society, leave them to self govern- 
ment, take no pains to improve them, will such a conmiunity 
present a more hopeful prospect ? Suppose again three-fourths 
of the educated, religious, industrious and polished of London 
were suddenly to einigrate, how long before the condition of 
that great city would be most deplorable? 

Some may object to planting a Colony of negroes in North 
America, but all future troubles from such a step is specula- 
tion, and altogether contingent upon the conduct oi their more 
powerful white neighbors. If our people act wisely, virtu- 
ously, firmly and kindly, nothing need be feared, and if they 
do not the Republic wi!i co.ne to ruin whetlier or not we have 
a neighbor negro colony. Anyhow, we have only to follow 
the promptings of our enlightened conscience, leaving fu- 
ture events to Providence, for remote colonization is imprac- 
ticable. We must either keep tlie blacks a debased race, a 
standing rebuke to our justice and wisdom, a conceded great 
social evil, an increasing cause of political anxiety, or adopt 
some practical plan for ultimate removal, or safe reduction at 
least. 

21 



232 

So loug as we are not lead by a blind impulsive feeling, re- 
gardlfbs of the ligut of reason and experieuce, as was the case 
in t'uiaiM-ii,ating the West India slaves, guided by our under- 
.staii iii:l and an enlightened conscience^ we cannot be held 
re.spoiisihie fov oui' well intended acts, and any question as to 
far distant rusiiit> is a problem, the solution of which must be 
left to the good providence of God. To say nothing (though 
svu-ely a most serious consideration) of the hazards to domestic 
secinity, peace and happiness, the concentration of a large 
slave population on our Suuthern border must be unwise. 
The strength of a country is its yeonianry, and surely no state 
will be willing to trust its defences tv» a yeomanry of slaves. 
In case of a foreign invasion a dcn;.e slave population must 
evei' present a most inviting weak point, as we know it did in 
the late war witli England, when it was contemplated to 
march black regiments into Greorgia. On an estate remote 
from a large city, with five hundred negroes it would be only 
reasonable to suppose that there would be many ready to meet 
any overtures from a wicked fanatic or military spy. We 
should reflect that this is a progressive evil and that it is 
the tendency, by a universal law for every wrong unchecked 
by human wisdom, indirectly and violently to cure itself, as 
illustrated in the French revolution. In every well balanced 
community from the diversity and degree of talent, energy, 
form of character or other circumstances, there must naturally 
exist three strata or classes, the lower occupied by the indigent 
and laborious, the second by the more thrifty and better provi- 
ded tradesmen and mechanics, the third by the more highly cul- 
tivated and opulent, placed above the drudgery of life. In the 
laws which thus regulate social hfe lies tlie foundation of a 
great self-adjusting conservative principle. When wealth and 
its concomitants, indolence and luxurious indulgence, long exist, 
the class deteriorates, individuals cannot hold their position 
from loss of power and aggressive competition from below, 
the middle class gradually works up, because its condition is 
more favorable to the development of moral and physical ex- 
cellence, the more energetic from the class below them supplies 
their places. Without this law of class no prosperous commu- 
nity can last, because there will be no classes from below to 
refresh and invigorate the effete U2)per stratum, in which up- 
per stratum, the governing power must reside, for ''those who 
think must govern those who toil." 

Now, under the institution of slavery this great law is broken 
up, there is a very meagre, inadequate middle stratum, and 
under the operation of natural causes, the upper stratum of 



masters will lose its numerical force, its moral and pliysical 
ability to govern will cease to be in that healthy proportion 
to the lower stratum required by subordinutioa and pros- 
perity. Hence it would seem t(j be the true pohcy to cul- 
tivate a middle class, keep down all unsafe excess iu the 
lower class or stratum. Colonization, aided by the wisest means 
of diffusion and tiie most decided prohibition of further iin- 
porlatiou, will naturally promote the one, introducing every 
variety of manufacture, worked by white operatives, and pro- 
hibitmg by law negro mechanics, would advance the other. 

Let the African be confined to agricultural labor, let him 
become the property of the state, introduce a species of serl- 
dom, uuder which the negro will enjoy a comparatively health- 
ful, safe freedom, an ameliorated slavery, consistent with jus- 
tice, mercy and the prosperity of all. Surely no thoughtful 
man who has the courage to look the evil in the face, no man 
who will not wilfully reject conviction, can deny the dreadful 
tendency, nay, the inevitable result of slavery cherished as it 
is. In fifty years there will be sixteen millions of slaves in the 
S.)Uth. Will not the anticipation of servile troubles cause men 
to emigrate, and the same cause prevent them from being re- 
placed by new settlers ? Will not an increasing difficulty to 
control, produce increased severity of police ? Natural causes 
enfeebling the master's moral and physical power, till at last a 
point is reached beyond which endurance and the capacity to 
govern must cease ? And what then ? The Sonth should be 
stimulated to move in this matter by every noble motive, as 
well as by tlie consideration established by statistical facts, 
daily observation and the opinions of some of her wisest men, 
that viewed in the double light or aspect of injustice and injury 
to the black race and of its deteriorating influences, morally and 
physically, on the masters and their descendants, with all its 
prospective perils, that slavery is no blessing. Indeed it can- 
not be too strongly impressed on the Southern mind, that to 
be politically wise, an institution must be morally right. 

Fellow citizens of the South, I pray you listen to the voice of 
reason and experience, to all of your truly great and good men 
from the date of our Union. Facts may be carelessly blinked 
or recklessly disregarded, but their consequences must be met. 
Be not stupidly passive under the delusion that because great 
gains may be pouring into your laps, that you are growing rich 
and powerful in all the essential elements of political prosper- 
ity. Reflect that from vast unequal wealth and luxurious liv- 
ing in one class, ignorance, poverty and degradation in the 
other, for they are equally unfavorable to the growth of moral 



234 

vvortli. rertui]! (Iqijoijille consequeiices are inseparable. True, 
scatt<'rfJ vvcr wiile. districts, palatial residences, as in Cuba, 
may arise, looking with lordly pride over thousands of acres 
untenanted by a free, cidiphjetied peaj^antry ; true to your de- 
ii^l;tt-(! i'\ I ,, iiii y v\;ivr 11, li hixuriancc, but unless nature's 
hiws c'i;i-f tr, iiM rii'ii- u>iiai results, your children's children, 
d(;ni()ralized and enieebled by inordinate wealth, extravagance 
and luxury must reap another harvest, a harvest of trouble and 
sorrow from the mad ])oiir-y of cherishing witiiin your bosom a 
great and growing donicstic cnt-my. Alas, 

"III fares the iaiul to !iasti-iiiiit< \\\'< a prey. 
Win-re wealth accumulates and where men decay."' 

Youl- ppr-uliar institution, to give security and peace of mind, 
will require an extensive standing army. Jt is the teach- 
ings of cx|)erience, that neighboring nations constantly find 
occasion for political broils. What is to give immunity to 
the two Confederacies from such evils? Will you not have 
also, exciting causes of bitter party strife? May not the peo- 
ple in the madness, recklessness and wick('dness of party spirit, 
place in the seat of power some ambitions military man, some 
Julius Ca3sar or some "Little Corporal." What then will save 
yonr free institutions? Will not the same causes which have 
produced the late unhappy division t)f our country exist so 
long as slavery exists as a cherished institution ? Is it possible 
that in two nati(tns so decidedly opposed upon the subject of 
vslavery, that fanatics and denjagogues will be idle? Will not 
fugitives from the South be still seciuced away and protected 
in the North ? Will n(jt this cause the bitterest strife and in- 
evitably lead to war ? No man can doubt that widespread 
misery will result to both sections, but to reason's eye one re- 
sult sooner or later, is inevitable ; with such vast odds of 
numerical strength, force and wealth against her. A fearful, 
slumbering, domestic enemy, within her borders, the general 
sympathy of mankind against her. under a strong sense of the 
scowl of freedom, justit'e. mercy and divine displeasure, all the 
desperation and boasted chivalry ot the South cannot save her. 
Like Na])oleon's guard she may bravely resolve never to sur- 
render, but like that gallant band, she nuist V)e overwhelmed. 
And truthful history will record her epitaph, died inglorious- 
ly, slain by freedom's sword, fighting against the inalienable 
rights of man. 



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